A. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to meters, and more specifically, relates to providing a programmable calendar events feature in a meter register.
B. Related Art
In known electronic time-of-use (TOU) meter registers, the register is programmed with calendar events. Calendar events specify, for example, holidays, season changes, and daylight saving changes. The number of calendar events the register can observe is limited by register memory space. Each unique event which must be observed for TOU metering requires an allocated memory space. For example, if the register is to be in the field for a ten year period, and if New Years Day is to be observed as a holiday every year, then ten calendar events for each New Years Day are stored in the register memory.
In order for the TOU register to continue proper operation beyond the period for which calendar events have been stored in the register memory, the register must be programmed with updated calendar events. As the number of programmable dates per year increases, the number of years the register can remain in the field without requiring a calendar update is shortened.